Forgiveness In A Kiss
by cutebean5
Summary: Katara has been on edge ever since Zuko has joined the Gaang. Zuko has been searching for a way to earn her forgiveness. Could something so simple be the answer to his problem? Zutara-ness expected!
1. The Dream

Katara had been on edge ever since the Fire Prince had joined their group at the Western Air Temple. She still could not believe that they had allowed him to be a part of the Gaang.

After everything he had done to them, after the numerous vicious encounters, after she had put her trust in him at Ba Sing Se, it all came to nothing in the end. Zuko was here with them, and he was Aang's new firebending teacher. Nothing could be done about that. But Katara had grown to cringe at the sound of Zuko's somber voice.

And after a few days, Katara was going out of her mind. Everyone made sure to steer clear of her after their initial acceptance of Zuko into their group. Katara seemed to be the only one who completely detested the idea. She would barely say a word to Zuko… except when necessary.

It was difficult for Zuko to attempt to befriend Katara, especially with her death threat hanging ominously over his head. But that didn't stop him from trying. He would often make small gestures toward Katara, such as informing her of areas on the mountainside that he had found to harbor water or clearing her plate after dinner. But she continued to be spiteful towards the Fire Prince, even after his numerous peace offerings.

This did not dissuade Zuko however. He was bound and determined to create a connection between him and Katara.

He simply did not anticipate what _kind_ of connection this was going to become.

_"Katara!" The young waterbender heard her name from an all too familiar tongue. Zuko. Katara ground her teeth together and furrowed her brow, concentrating thoroughly on ignoring him. It was not until the third or fourth time her name was called from the Fire Prince that she felt he deserved any sort of response. _

_"What?" she screeched savagely, turning on her heel to see Zuko standing directly behind her. He stared at her blankly. Her breathing became unsteady with rage._

_"Sorry Katara, I didn't realize you were so close." He gave the young waterbender a second to calm herself. _

_"Why didn't you say anything?"_

_"Because I wanted to avoid this" she made a motion with her hand in the space between them "Us talking." _

_"Oh" he replied, his voice low. "Well, I was only wondering if you wanted to come watch Aang and I train. He's doing well. I thought you would like to see how he's coming along."_

_"Well" she replied hotly "If you're present count me out."_

_"Katara, I have to be there to teach him…" His voice was unnervingly steady. _

_"Then go teach, and leave me alone! You're wasting my time and Aang's by speaking to me." After this acidic statement she felt the temperature in the room rise a number of degrees. Although she knew it wasn't fair to provoke the young Fire Prince, she thoroughly enjoyed getting a rise out of him. _

_"What?" she asked coyly, "Did I make you angry?" Zuko stood in silent fury before her. He knew he could not say a word, or he risked being persecuted by the livid waterbender. All he wanted was to make peace._

_"Well?" she asked. Zuko took a step toward her. _

_"Katara..." he began softly. _

_"I'd watch it if I were you Zuko" Katara growled. Zuko took another step toward her, close enough to strike her. _

_"Katara, please..." he said, now with a stern edge to his voice. _

_"Zuko, I'm warning you, if you take another step I swear I will freeze the air from your lungs" she spat. _

_The events that ensued seemed to happen in a rush. Zuko moved closer, not to attack, but to reason with her. All he wanted was for her to forgive him, and that did not seem to be an experience that was going to occur between them in the near future. Katara, in a rage, froze the solid ground beneath Zuko, causing him to slip and topple onto the disoriented waterbender. For a moment, neither of them moved. The air had been knocked from their lungs due to the sudden fall. As soon as Zuko regained his breath, he propped himself up on one hand. His other was resting gently on the waist of Katara, who was still as stone beneath him. _

_At first, he didn't know what to do. He was surprised that she hadn't already accused him of assaulting her. But there she lay, calm beneath him. _

_Something about their closeness made Katara's mind begin to wander. _

_'He has a handsome face' she thought fleetingly. _

_'Handsome and sincere.' _

_She stared up beseechingly into his amber eyes, resting one hand gently on the scarred side of his face. Heat radiated from the young Fire Prince through her fingertips. Her breathing was ragged, but no longer from rage. _

_Zuko was visibly stunned by the girl's tenderness. He suddenly remembered a past instance in which she had touched him this way at Ba Sing Se. It was only a fleeting touch, but he could recall her trembling fingers resting on his lips, a comfort he would never forget. _

_All rational thought began to slip from Zuko's mind. He could feel the heat slipping from his body, causing the ice beneath them both to melt away. _

_'Could this be the way to forgiveness?' he thought. _

_He inched his face closer to Katara's, and his hand moved softly over the skin of her stomach, cautious but yearning. _

_'What am I doing?' he thought, stopping himself for a moment. Katara's eyes were closed in comfort, as if she were in a deep and dreamless sleep. Zuko knew what she desired, he just couldn't make himself believe it. _

_Katara could feel Zuko's warm breath on her face, her lips. He smelled of cinnamon and fire. Danger and wickedness. _

_It was twisting the thoughts in her head. The warmth, instead of fueling the hate she held for Zuko, channeled a different wanting in the labyrinth of her mind that she had kept hidden since their first intimacies. _

_Her skin burned from his touch. She closed her eyes and parted her lips, waiting for him. _

_Zuko took one last look at her, one last unbelieving look, and then slowly lowered his head to envelope her soft lips in a kiss. _

Katara gasped as she bolted upright from her place on the floor, sweat pouring down her forehead.

'How has it become so suddenly hot in here?' she wondered breathlessly.


	2. The Kiss

Katara rose from her bed, her legs a bit unsteady.

"What just happened?" she breathed. She held up her tangled mass of brown waves away from her neck, the heat almost suffocating her. She looked at the sleeping figures around her. Aang, Sokka, Toph... and Zuko. Something about seeing his sleeping form made her cheeks flush. She watched silently as his bare chest rose and fell with his steady breathing, mesmerized by his sculpted physique.

She looked away and scowled to herself.

'Have some self-control', she told herself stubbornly. She sighed and put a hand over her eyes, trying to recall her dream.

'We were arguing… and the he… and then I…' she paused her thoughts for a moment, pinching the bridge of her nose as she paced back and forth across the cold stone floor of the temple.

'Maybe I _should_ trust him' she thought, the memory of his hot fingertips, soft on her bare skin, flitting across her mind.

Her eyes again found his sleeping figure. Katara knew she was being unfair to him. He had lied and been deceitful. He had betrayed them. But she could clearly discern the pain in his eyes. She knew he had suffered in his past life. His mother had disappeared. His father, the ruthless Firelord, had banished him from the only home he had ever known. The pain of such experiences was unreal to her.

"What is going on in that head of yours Zuko?" she whispered.

All of a sudden, it came to her. The dream. The kiss.

Her hand flew to her lips. She touched them softly, her warm breath drifting over her fingertips.

She wandered over to where Zuko was sleeping and knelt beside him. Up close, he looked so much like the boy he was instead of the man he was forced to be. At such a distance, Katara could look at nothing else but his soft lips, unmoving with slumber. She put her hand gently on his chest, feeling his heart flutter against her fingers.

That's when she felt it. The fire in her.

She wanted to feel those lips moving against hers again. She wanted to taste his breath, have his hands caress her skin once more. It was only a dream, she knew. But why was it so very_real_?

'There's only one way to find out' she thought nervously.

Her hand still rested on his chest, rising and falling. She felt the heat from his body run through her fingertips. It was like a hot cup of tea on a cold winter day, creating a warm puddle in her stomach and causing her to breathe out with delight. It was something about the roguish fire within him and the calm, soothing water within her. The two contrasted in such a way that caused Katara, as well as Zuko, pleasure. His face visibly softened under her touch.

They were connected in some way.

'But _how_?' Her mind seemed to be at a standstill. She _had_ to do this. It was the only way to find out.

Was this real?

Slowly she bent her head, eyes still half open, to hover over Zuko's lips. She smelled his breath, like cinnamon, and her senses began to scramble. She brought the hand that was lying on his chest up to his jaw and laid it there, tilting his head back.

And that's when she kissed him. Gently, carefully, she laid her lips onto his.

It was as if they were a perfect fit, two statues molded into one another. Katara closed her eyes as that warmth that had been building in her stomach spread through every part of her body. She did not ever want to move from where she knelt, beside the fire Prince and kissing his soft, warm lips.

Suddenly, Zuko stirred.

At first, he thought he was dreaming.

But as he lay there, becoming more coherent, it took everything in him not to bolt upright in shock.

_Katara_was kissing him. The person who supposedly hated him most in this world had planted her lips on his and did not seem as though she wanted to be moved.

'Did she think I was Aang?' he wondered for a moment. But it was a rather difficult mistake to make.

'Besides' he thought as he closed his eyes and breathed into her 'I don't really mind.'

Indeed he didn't. Ever since Ba Sing Se Zuko had created a soft spot in his heart for Katara. But he never imagined that she might have one for him too. Now it seemed that she was beginning to consume his whole heart, not simply a small part of it.

He had to move, had to react, had to do _something._

'Well' he thought, 'Here goes nothing.'


	3. Forgiveness

Zuko's mind was racing. He realized that this would never end well, but he had to do something. He would have never thought the young waterbender could feel this way, _any_way about him.

Then slowly, carefully, he lifted his hand to the side of her neck and placed it there, rubbing his thumb across her jaw. He gently applied more pressure to her lips, kissing her back.

He sighed at the feeling. Every nerve in his body tingled, as if a cool breath had just enveloped his insides.

Suddenly Katara's eyes snapped open. The very thing she had been afraid of had occurred. She thought she had felt something as she lay stone still against him. But she did not want to know if he was awake or asleep, therefore she chose to leave her eyes closed. But she couldn't ignore him any longer. The pressure he was exerting on her lips was making her breathless, and one of his hands was tangled in her hair.

She gasped and pulled away from him. All tenderness was shattered by their ragged breath and flushed faces. She was still not far from him. Close enough to make out his amber eyes in the darkness.

"Katara..." he breathed her name. At this she wanted nothing more than to kiss him again. But she couldn't. She knew it wasn't right, that she had to get away. The situation between the two of them was complicated enough already.

"Zuko, don't" she whispered harshly as she began to stand up.

Zuko's temper flared. Was she _serious_? What was going on here?

"No" he said, grabbing her hand and pulled her back down to him.

Katara's breathing was becoming heavy at his closeness. Zuko's thumb moved back and forth across the top of her hand.

"Zuko, please" she said pleadingly, "Just let it go. I wasn't thinking."

At this Zuko growled.

"Listen" he began "It wasn't nothing. You and I both know that. And it's not as if we can make it go away. I didn't want it to..."

He looked up searchingly into her confused blue eyes.

"I know you felt it too" he said. He stopped stroking her hand and held it tightly now. Katara sat there in silence, her breath more steady.

"It was like a calming aura" he began "It filled me up, just as if cool breath had been blown into me. Everything smelled and tasted like rain on a spring day. I felt so serene and pure. It was as though I could _feel_ the bending part of you inside of me" he finished.

They sat there in silence for a long time.

After a moment she moved towards him, their faces dangerously close. Katara lifted her fingers to touch Zuko's lips very softly. They both breathed out with contentment.

"Do you feel it?" he asked, his lips moving against her hand, his eyes closed in comfort.

"I do" she breathed "But it's not the same."

"What do you mean?" he asked, his eyes opening. He took her hand from his lips and held it again.

She gave herself a moment to conjure a suitable explanation, one that would not describe the feeling of lust and fire she felt as soon as she made skin contact with the Fire Prince. But it could be described as nothing other than just that.

"Well..." she began. He looked at her expectantly from behind his dark, shaggy bangs.

"I feel this wonderful, warm sensation. At first it starts here" she placed her hand on her abdomen.

"But then it's like flood gates releasing this...this..._feeling _to every part of my body. The air smells of jasmine and spice and everything feels so sensuous. It's as though I'm consumed with..." she paused for a moment, wondering if she could make her final statement.

"With what?" he asked, intrigued. Katara sighed.

"With... with... _want_ I guess you could call it" she chuckled nervously.

He smiled at this.

"Really?" he asked, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Do you think I'm lying?" she snapped. She wished she had never said anything.

"Let's find out" he said, and leaned forward to kiss her again.

Katara knew normal precedence would have never allowed such a thing to happen twice in one night. But she concluded that it was simply destiny, or predestined by the universe, because at this point she didn't care. All that she wanted was him.

This kiss was nothing like before. It was no longer soft and tentative, but deep and searching. Katara's hand glided up and down the Fire Prince's bare torso, sending delighted shivers down his body.'

Zuko was a gentleman, she discovered. His hands were either in her lap or on her neck, never roaming.

When they finally pulled apart, they were greeted with a sight that awed them.

A faint glow surrounded them both, Katara's a halo of blue and Zuko's red.

They breathed out in unison.

Katara lifted her hand up, palm out, as did Zuko. They pressed their hands together, fingers spread, feeling the ice and fire as the two clashed and molded together. Two opposite forces attracting in such a way that touched the senses. The most opposing forces in all of nature blending together in harmony.

"Zuko" whispered Katara.

"Yes" he said, a smile on his lips.

"I forgive you" she whispered.

And she kissed him again.


End file.
